How to Write an Invoice That Gets Paid in 2026: Free Template, 9 Fields, One Prompt (Word, Canva, Invoice Simple, Zoho, Jobbit)

You finished the job on Friday, the client said "send me the invoice", and now it is Sunday night and you are staring at a blank document wondering whether you need a VAT line, what number to give it and whether "payment due on receipt" is something you are allowed to write. Half the UK's smallest businesses know this feeling: the Federation of Small Businesses has reported for years that around half of small firms are paid late, and a late invoice usually starts as a vague one.

This guide shows you how to write an invoice that a client can pay without asking you a single question. You get the nine fields UK law expects, a free invoice template you can copy, the payment terms that actually get money into your account, the interest and compensation you can legally add when a business pays late, and a three-email chasing sequence. And you get the shortest route: the Jobbit invoice generator, where you type who it is for, what for and how much, pick VAT and the due date, and get a numbered PDF invoice plus an editable DOCX, with no card and no watermark.

Write an invoice on Jobbit in one message

The Jobbit invoice generator is a form with the fields an invoice needs and nothing else. You type who it is for and, if you like, your business name; the amount, in pounds by default or any currency you bill in; what it was for, one line per item; whether VAT is off, added on top or already included, with the rate set for you; and whether payment is due on receipt or in 7, 14 or 30 days. The page shows the message it will send and sends it the moment you have a free account. This is the message for the example on the form:

1Create a professional invoice for Acme Ltd for Website design, five pages, 1,200 GBP. No VAT, I am not VAT registered. Payment is due within 14 days. Use a clean layout with an invoice number and today's date, a line for each item, subtotal, a VAT line where relevant, total, payment terms and a bank details block. Leave clearly marked placeholders for my business name, address and bank details, then give me the invoice as a PDF and as an editable DOCX.

The first invoice comes back with clearly marked placeholders for your address and bank details. Reply once with those and Jobbit fills them in and keeps the layout, so the second invoice is a one-line job: "invoice Green Cafe for March bookkeeping, 250 pounds, VAT on top, due on receipt". You can also say "add my logo" and attach it, "make it a proforma invoice", "add a late payment clause", or "turn this into a credit note for the returned item".

The free plan gives you 100 credits a day, which covers several invoices, and there is no card to enter. If invoicing is a weekly job for you, the Plus plan at £15 a month adds a bigger monthly pool and automatic reminders, but a single invoice is a free-plan job.

The 9 fields every UK invoice must include

HMRC's guidance on invoicing lists what a UK invoice must carry. If you are not VAT registered, the list is short, and a missing item is the most common reason an invoice sits in a client's "query" pile instead of their "pay" pile. The Jobbit form asks for the ones only you can supply and fills in the rest.

1. The word "Invoice" at the top, so it is not mistaken for a quote, a statement or a proforma.

2. A unique invoice number. Any format works as long as no two invoices share a number; for VAT invoices the numbers must run in sequence. INV-2026-001 is fine. Do not restart at 1 every year.

3. Your business name, address and contact details. A sole trader puts their own name plus any trading name, and an address where legal documents can be delivered. A limited company uses the full company name exactly as it appears on the certificate of incorporation, and if you name one director you must name them all.

4. The client's name and address. For a company, the registered company name; for a person, their name and the address the work relates to.

5. A clear description of what you supplied. "Website design, five pages, as agreed on 3 September 2026" beats "services". One line per item, with quantity and unit price where they apply.

6. The date of supply (when the work was done or the goods delivered) and the invoice date. They are often the same day, and they need not be.

7. The amount for each line and the total. Show the subtotal, any VAT, and the total owed in pounds.

8. Payment terms and the due date. "Payment due within 14 days of the invoice date, by 30 September 2026" removes every excuse. Add the late payment wording from the section below.

9. How to pay. Account name, sort code, account number, and a reference (the invoice number). A payment link or a QR code that opens it saves the client a step.

If you are VAT registered, add your VAT number, the VAT rate and amount per line, the total VAT, and the tax point (usually the date of supply), and issue the VAT invoice within 30 days of the supply. Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12 months. If you are not registered, do not put a VAT number or a VAT line on the invoice at all; charging VAT you cannot account for is an offence, not a rounding error.

A free invoice template you can copy

This layout is what the invoice generator produces. Copy it into any document and fill in the brackets if you would rather do it by hand.

1INVOICE2 3[Your business name]                        Invoice number: INV-2026-0144[Address line 1, town, postcode]            Invoice date: 16 September 20265[Email, phone]                              Date of supply: 12 September 20266[VAT number, only if registered]            Due date: 30 September 20267 8Bill to: [Client name], [Client address]9 10Description                                Qty   Unit price    Amount11Website design, five pages                 1     £1,200.00     £1,200.0012Stock photo licences                       3     £12.00        £36.0013 14                                                 Subtotal      £1,236.0015                                                 VAT at 20%    £247.20 (omit if not registered)16                                                 Total due     £1,483.2017 18Payment terms: due within 14 days of the invoice date. We reserve the right to19claim interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts20(Interest) Act 1998 on overdue amounts.21 22Pay by bank transfer: [Account name], sort code [00-00-00], account [00000000],23reference INV-2026-014.

Three habits make this template work harder than the ones you download. Keep the invoice number and the due date on the first line the eye lands on, because that is what an accounts person searches for. Put the payment reference next to the bank details, because an unreferenced payment is the second most common reason a paid invoice still shows as outstanding. And save the file as INV-2026-014-Acme.pdf, so the client's finance inbox can find it in March.

Payment terms that get you paid: 7, 14 or 30 days

Payment terms are the part of the invoice most people copy without thinking, and the part that decides whether you are paid in a week or in two months. They are the four choices on the Jobbit form.

• Due on receipt is right for one-off jobs for private customers, for anything under about £300, and for work you have already delivered. It is not rude; it is normal for tradespeople, tutors, cleaners and market sellers.

• 7 or 14 days suits freelancers and small suppliers billing other small businesses. Fourteen days is the sweet spot: long enough for a monthly payment run, short enough that the job is still fresh.

• 30 days is the default the law assumes if you agreed nothing, and it is what larger companies will push for. Agree it only when the client's payment run genuinely needs it, and say so on the quote before the work starts, not on the invoice after.

• Deposits and stage payments are payment terms too. For any job over a few days, invoice 30% to 50% up front and the balance on completion. A client who resists a deposit is telling you something about the final payment.

Two details the law adds for business-to-business work in the UK: if you have not agreed terms, payment is late 30 days after the client receives the invoice or the goods, whichever is later, and a business cannot impose terms longer than 60 days unless that is fair to both sides. Consumers are not covered by those rules, which is why "due on receipt" and a deposit matter more for private customers.

Late payment interest: what you can legally add

When a business pays a business late, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you two things automatically, whether or not your contract mentions them.

Statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, charged per day from the day after the due date. With the base rate at 3.75% in mid 2026 that is 11.75% a year, so a £1,200 invoice paid 30 days late has earned about £11.59 in interest. The rate is fixed by reference to the base rate in force when the debt became late, so check the rate on the day rather than relying on a figure from an old template.

Fixed compensation for your recovery costs, per invoice:

You can claim both on the same invoice. In practice most small businesses use the clause as a deterrent, mention it politely in the second reminder, and waive it when the money arrives. Put the sentence on the invoice before the client is late; adding it afterwards works legally but starts an argument. Two limits: the Act covers business customers only, not private households, and it does not apply where your contract already sets a substantial interest rate of its own. "Add a late payment clause" on Jobbit inserts the wording and works out the interest when you need it.

Chasing an unpaid invoice: the three-email sequence

Most late invoices are not disputes; they are invoices nobody actioned. A short, predictable sequence gets the majority paid without a phone call. Once the invoice is in the chat, "draft three polite reminder emails for this invoice: one the day before it is due, one three days after, and one fourteen days after that mentions statutory interest" produces them with the right amounts and dates.

• Day before the due date: the friendly nudge. One paragraph. "A quick reminder that invoice INV-2026-014 for £1,483.20 is due tomorrow, 30 September. The PDF is attached again for convenience, and the bank details are at the bottom." Half of late payers pay on this email alone.

• Three days after: the direct ask. Still warm, now specific. "Invoice INV-2026-014 was due on 30 September and I cannot see it on our account. Could you confirm when it has been scheduled? If it has already been sent, a remittance reference would help me match it."

• Fourteen days after: the formal notice. Businesslike, not angry. State the amount, the original due date, the days overdue, and that you are entitled to statutory interest and the fixed compensation under the 1998 Act, which you will add from the date of this email if payment is not received within seven days. Attach a statement.

If a business customer still has not paid after the formal notice, send a letter before action giving 14 days, then use the county court's money claim online service for debts up to £10,000 in England and Wales. It costs less than most people expect and rarely reaches a hearing. Keep every email and the signed quote; the paper trail is the case.

Invoice numbering, VAT and tax: the rules that catch people out

• Numbers must be unique, and sequential if you are VAT registered. Gaps are allowed if you can explain them (a cancelled invoice, a credit note), but never reuse a number. A prefix per client (ACME-014) is fine as long as the whole series is unique.

• Proforma is not an invoice. A proforma invoice is a quote laid out like an invoice, used to ask for payment before delivery. It is not a tax document, cannot carry VAT as if it were one, and should be replaced by a real invoice when the goods or work are supplied.

• Credit notes, not deletions. If you overcharged, issue a credit note that references the original number; deleting and reissuing breaks the sequence.

• Keep copies. Sole traders keep invoices for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline of the tax year they belong to; limited companies keep them for six years.

• Self Assessment dates. If you are self-employed, register with HMRC by 5 October after the end of your first tax year, file and pay by 31 January, and expect payments on account on 31 January and 31 July once your bill passes £1,000. The self-employed, freelancer or sole trader guide explains which you are.

• Making Tax Digital is here. From April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 must keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC through compatible software, with the threshold dropping to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Invoices produced and kept in a chat you can export count; a drawer of paper does not.

Why Jobbit instead of a template or an invoice app

The options you will meet when you search all produce something that looks like an invoice. The difference is what you have to do by hand and what happens after the first one.

If you need bank feeds and VAT returns, buy an accounting package for those. For the invoice itself, the reminders, the credit note and the summary, Jobbit does the job from one form and keeps everything in a chat you can search.

After the invoice: what the same chat does next

• A quote into an invoice. "Convert the quote I sent Acme on 3 September into an invoice, 50% deposit now, balance on completion." The numbers, the client details and the description carry across.

• The series kept straight. Jobbit remembers the last number and the layout, so INV-2026-015 follows INV-2026-014 without a spreadsheet.

• The reminders and the formal notice, with the statutory interest calculated, ready to send. Automatic sending on the due date is part of the paid plans.

• VAT and currency changes. "Add VAT to everything except the books" or "invoice in euros and show the sterling equivalent" are one-line changes; the form already lets you bill in any currency.

• The quarter's summary. A table of every invoice sent, paid and outstanding, which is exactly what a Making Tax Digital update or an accountant asks for.

• A payment QR code. A static code from the QR code generator that opens your payment link, placed under the bank details, gets private customers paying from their phone.

• The rest of the business. The website the invoice links to, and the compressed PDF when a portal rejects the attachment.

General assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot can draft an invoice as text if you ask, and agents such as Manus and Meta's Muse can lay one out as a file. What they do not have is the form that removes the writing, the memory of your numbering and layout, and the marketplace where a UK bookkeeper can be brought into the same chat, which is why the comparison of multipurpose agents puts Jobbit first for small businesses. The AI invoice generator guide for freelancers goes deeper on chasing and cash flow.

Mistakes that get an invoice ignored

• No due date, only "30 days". Thirty days from what? Write the date. The form does.

• A description the client's finance team cannot match to a purchase order or a person. Name the person who commissioned the work and the date it was agreed.

• Sending it to the wrong inbox. Ask on day one where invoices go; many companies have an accounts address that is processed weekly, and your contact's inbox is not it.

• A PDF that will not open on a phone or is 9 MB because of the logo. Export at a sensible size, or run it through the PDF compressor first.

• Charging VAT without a VAT number, or forgetting VAT with one. Either one turns a 14-day invoice into a 60-day conversation.

• Changing the bank details by email. Invoice fraud works exactly like this. Keep the same details on every invoice and tell clients you will never change them by email.

A 30-minute plan for your first proper invoice

• Minute 0 to 5: gather the nine fields. Your legal name and trading name, address, the client's registered name, the agreed price, and the date the work was supplied.

• Minute 5 to 10: generate. Fill in the invoice generator: client, amount, what for, VAT, 14 days. Sign up once with an email address and the PDF and DOCX arrive in the chat.

• Minute 10 to 15: check. Subtotal, VAT if any, total, reference on the bank details, invoice number logged.

• Minute 15 to 20: send it properly. PDF named with the number, to the accounts address, with a one-line email that repeats the amount and the due date.

• Minute 20 to 30: set the follow-ups. Ask the same chat for the three reminder emails and put the dates in your calendar, or let the paid plan send them.

Frequently asked questions

What must an invoice include in the UK?

A UK invoice needs the word "Invoice", a unique number, your business name and address, the client's name and address, a clear description of what was supplied, the date of supply and the invoice date, the amount for each item and the total, and the payment terms. VAT-registered businesses also add their VAT number, the VAT rate and amount per line and the tax point. Bank details and a due date are not legally required but are what gets the invoice paid.

Can I write an invoice if I am not VAT registered?

Yes. Any sole trader or company can invoice without VAT registration; you simply leave VAT off the document entirely and do not show a VAT number. Registration only becomes compulsory when your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12 months, though you can register voluntarily before that if it suits your clients. "No VAT" is the default on the Jobbit form.

How much late payment interest can I charge on an unpaid invoice?

For business customers, statutory interest of 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100 per invoice depending on whether the debt is under £1,000, under £10,000 or £10,000 and over. The right exists under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 even if your contract says nothing, but it does not apply to private consumers.

What payment terms should I put on an invoice?

Due on receipt for private customers and small one-off jobs, 14 days for most business-to-business work, and 30 days only when a larger client's payment run needs it and you agreed it before starting. Always write the actual due date, and take a deposit on any job that runs longer than a few days.

Do invoice numbers have to be sequential?

They must be unique, and if you are VAT registered they must follow a sequence with no reused numbers. Gaps are acceptable when you can explain them, for example a cancelled invoice replaced by a credit note. A format such as INV-2026-014 that continues across years is the simplest way to stay compliant, and Jobbit keeps the series for you.

Is a proforma invoice the same as an invoice?

No. A proforma is a request for payment before goods or work are supplied, laid out like an invoice but not a tax document. Once you deliver, issue a proper invoice with its own number; if you are VAT registered, the proforma cannot be used to account for the VAT.

Is the Jobbit invoice generator really free?

Yes. You fill in the form, create a free account with an email address (no card), and Jobbit returns a numbered PDF invoice and an editable DOCX in a chat you keep. The free plan includes 100 credits a day, which covers several invoices; automatic reminders come with the paid plans. Write your invoice here and, if you like how it works, ask for the reminders in the same chat.